Challenges to the Cambodian Garment Industry in the Global Garment Value Chain

This article examines the competitiveness of Cambodia's garment export industry, on which the country's recent and successful economic development has depended to an unusually heavy extent. Using primary interviews and drawing on a wide range of secondary sources, it documents how Cambodia was drawn into garment global value chains, based almost entirely on inward investment. Despite its expansion in the face of strong Chinese competition, since the end of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing in December 2004, the industry remains vulnerable as a result of deficient infrastructure, labour unrest, official corruption and the absence of an adequate domestic textile industry, all of which serve to diminish its attractiveness to global buyers.